Underneath It All
by yeah-i-saw-sparks
Summary: NOTE! I'm REPOSTING this with edits and stuff. I suck at summaries and I don't really know how the story will turn out, so it'll have to be a surprise. FYI this is my very 1st fic, so be nice and don't flame me unless you have something really importan
1. intro

...I don't own holes or any of the characters (i wish) that credit goes to Louis Sachar, awesome writer, so please don't sue me or anything ;o)...

Introduction

Once upon a time, there was a magical place where it never rained. Or snowed. Or got cloudy. In fact, the weather never really did anything at all, except shine. The temperature stayed at about 120 degrees, sunup to sundown. No clouds, no trees, no shade at all. There was nothing but heat, sand, and sun for miles around. And holes. Lots of holes. Welcome to Camp Green Lake: Juvenile Behavioral Correction Center for Boys.

At Camp Green Lake, the motto is, "If you take a bad boy and make him dig holes all day in the hot sun, it turns him into a good boy." So that's the daily regime for the boys of Camp Green Lake: Wake up, eat breakfast - if you can call it that - and dig your hole. When you've done that, walk back to camp, take a shower, and use any free time before dinner to pursue the activity of your choice, not that there are many options to choose from. By the time you've finished your dinner of baked beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, green beans, and pretty much any other kind of beans you can think of, you're too wiped out to do anything but collapse onto your cot with the other boys in your tent and fall straight to sleep - only to be re awoken at 4:30 AM to do it all over again. Sounds like fun, right? I doubt it.

...OK, I know it's really short and it doesn't tell you anything, but I'm almost done writing the first chapter PLEASE REVIEW! I'll love you forever!...


	2. The New Arrival

...I don't own holes or any of the characters...blah blah...I only own Avita, who I invented. Holes belongs to Louis Sachar, and there is a little section in this chapter that was inspired by Vega-chan1, so that credit goes to her, not me...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter one: The New Arrival

Six boys, shovels in hand and sweat pouring down their faces, stood amongst piles of sandy dirt, digging. They all wore orange jumpsuits, though a few had removed their shirts to try to relieve some of the intense heat of the sun beating down upon their backs. Each boy's hole was several feet deep by now, and about five feet wide. The smallest of the six boys, a skinny African American kid with thick, fluffy curls that were sticking out from under his floppy sun hat, climbed out of his hole, now five feet deep, and surveyed his handiwork. Apparently satisfied, the boy spat into his hole, dusted off his hands, and began walking back along the dirt road towards the camp in the distance, his shovel lying across his shoulders, held in place by his arms that hung limply over the handle.

The other five boys paused in their work to watch the small boy walking away. Each was thinking the same thing, though none of them said a word. They couldn't wait to be done with their holes, so they, too, could head back to camp to relax for a while in the refreshing shade of their tent, or even better, take a nice, cold shower.

About twenty minutes later, all five boys looked up again from their holes - they could hear the distant rumble of an engine growing louder and louder. Though none of the guys could see the source of the noise, they knew what it must be - the Bus.

"Hey, that must be the new guy", said one of the boys. He had a buzz cut, a dark tan, and spoke with a strong Mexican accent. He wore a faded black bandanna tied around his head, to keep the sweat out of his dark brown eyes.

"Wonder who he is- I hope he's better at digging holes than Dizzy was. That's why he left, ya know, 'cause he kept passin' out from the heat. They thought he was gonna die from heat stroke or somethin', so they sent him home," said another of the boys. He was tall and his skin was tanned from having removed his shirt so often while he worked. He spoke with a slight Southern drawl, had honey-brown eyes, and dark brown hair, but at the moment it was so dusty you'd have thought it was grey at first glance. He was wearing a faded yellow baseball cap over a white bandanna to keep the sun off his head and the back of his neck.

"Dude, how do you know that?" asked an overweight African American boy, whose jumpsuit looked grubbier than all the rest put together.

"I overheard Mom and Mr. Sir talkin' about it a couple of days ago," said the boy.

"Will you two SHUT UP already!" shouted a tough-looking black boy. He too had a bandanna, and he was wearing a thick pair of glasses that were so filthy, it was surprising that he could see out of them at all.

"Hey, X-Ray, chill, alright?" said the tallest boy in the group. He had frizzy blond hair that stuck up in every direction, giving the impression that he had just stuck his finger into an electrical outlet.

"Don't you tell me to chill, Zigzag," said the boy called X-Ray, starting to get out of his hole.

"Guys, cool it! If we start a fight the Warden'll come down on all of us," said the boy called with the yellow hat, putting out an arm to prevent X-Ray from trying to hit ZigZag.

As the Warden's name was mentioned, a shiver seemed to pass through the group like a sudden breath of icy wind. None of them had ever met the Warden, and they sure weren't in any hurry. No, they liked living, thank you very much. Number one rule at Camp Green Lake: Do NOT upset the Warden.

It was about 3:30 in the afternoon by the time all of the boys had finished their holes. When each boy had finished, he would use his shovel to measure that his hole was five feet deep and five feet wide. Then, he would climb out of his hole and spit into it. Finally, each of the five boys had finished except for the one called Armpit.

"Hey, Armpit, HURRY UP!" called the tan, Spanish-looking boy.

"Hey, Magnet" said the boy called Armpit.

"What?"

Armpit made a rude gesture with his hands, evoking raucous peels of laughter from the others.

When Armpit had finished his hole and spat into it, the five boys trudged back to camp, their long, dark shadows trailing behind them, the only source of shade on the parched earth.

As they walked back along the dusty road, they passed several other orange-clad boys from other tents. To an outsider, the scenery at Camp Green Lake would have been most unusual. It wasn't so much a lake as a sea of holes - hundreds of thousands of them - going on for miles in every direction. They knew there had been a lake there at one point, X-Ray had even found a fossil of a pair of fish once, but as far as any of them knew, not so much as a drop of water had touched the "lake" for over a hundred years. That was back when the Warden's grandfather had owned Green Lake and most of the town around it, but the lake had long since dried up, and any buildings there had been back then were certainly not there now.

As the five boys drew nearer to the camp, they could clearly make out six large tents, the Mess Hall, Wreck Room, showers, and a small shed marked "Library," where the shovels were kept. At the far end of the camp was a log cabin, in front of which were two large oak trees. This was the Warden's cabin. Those trees and that shade belonged to the Warden.

Once they were inside the camp, the boys walked past three large tents made of canvas that was so dirty that it looked as though it had never been washed. The tents each had an old wooden sign swinging above the entrance that was marked with a large letter, carved into it and roughly painted over in black. These three tents were marked 'A', 'B', and 'C'. Then, they came to the tent marked 'D' - their own. A little further on, they could see a couple of boys outside E-tent messing around with an ancient radio, which was belting out static for all it was worth. The last tent, F, was for the counselors. The campers tended to avoid this tent whenever possible.

The D-tent boys took off their dust-caked boots and deposited them next to the wooden block that served as a step up to the tent's opening. The tents were all built up on top of wooden platforms held up by stilts, so there was a foot-high gap between the ground and the tent floor. This was supposed to prevent the tents from getting wet if their was a flood, but as it never rained anywhere within about a hundred miles of the camp, they didn't really need to worry about that.

The five boys went into the tent to get their shower tokens and second set of clothes. There were seven cots spaced around the tent, and each one had a plastic crate at the foot of it labeled with the name of the boy to which it belonged. To no one's surprise, one of the cots was already occupied by a smallish person in an orange jumpsuit. They could usually expect to come back from digging to find Zero in the tent, lying on his cot, staring blankly at the ceiling. What did surprise them, however, was that he wasn't lying on his own cot, he was fast asleep on the one with the crate marked "Squid".

"Hey, rise 'n shine, Zero. " said the boy called Squid.

Zero didn't respond, he didn't even move. Squid went to shake him awake, but jumped back in surprise, because the boy lying fast asleep on the cot definitely wasn't Zero.

The new boy was short, though he was still a little taller than Zero would've been. His skin was a sort of soft tan color, like burnt honey, and he had his arms crossed over his chest. He was wearing a floppy blue sun hat pulled down over his eyes, so the other boys, now crowded around Squid's cot, couldn't see his face. Squid, thoroughly irritated at having somebody he didn't even know taking a nap on his bed, leaned over the boy and said,

"Hey!" very loudly.

The boy didn't move, so Squid gave him a gentle poke in the side. Without warning, the boy rolled over and, as he did so, stuck out his arm, catching Squid hard in the stomach. Squid, caught by surprise, toppled over backwards, tripped on a crate at the foot of the cot, and fell hard onto the floor, completely winded.

Meanwhile, the boy on the cot turned his head and his hat slipped off his face. The members of D-tent around the cot yelled in surprise and jumped backwards, knocking over another cot as they did so. The boys (minus Squid, who was still on the floor) were gaping, speechless and open- mouthed, at the person lying asleep on the cot.

"What?" asked Squid, getting up off the floor and rubbing his stomach. He too looked over at the boy on the bed, and his jaw dropped. Lying there, still fast asleep, was...

"He's... he's a GIRL!" said Squid weakly.

Just then, the girl let out a low moan and rolled onto her back again. She yawned, and slowly sat up, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. The guys all backed away, glancing from the girl to each other and back again, not exactly sure what to do.

As the girl's vision became clearer, she suddenly realized that she was in a tent full of boys, boys, moreover, who were all staring avidly at her.

From what the boys could see of her, she was about average height and had long, dark brown curls with flecks of bronze in them that were reflecting the sunlight coming in through the tent flap. She had hard, almond-shaped, emerald green eyes, and long, dark eyelashes. She also had a thin scar right below her left eye that made her eyes stand out sharply, hard among her other, softer features.

For a while, she just sat there, staring back at them, until finally she asked,

"So, are you gonna tell me who y'all are, or am I gonna have to guess?"

The boys suddenly realized how long they had been staring and looked away, fidgeting uncomfortably. Then Squid seemed to come to his senses and began introducing his tent mates,

"This is X-Ray, Zigzag, Magnet, and Armpit." He pointed to each of the other boys in turn.

"And I'm Squid," he added.

She smiled shyly at them, shifting nervously as they were all still looking at her as though she had sprouted an extra head. Though slightly unnerved, she tried to be as friendly as possible.

"I'm Avita. Which one of you did I accidentally punch in the stomach?" she asked, her hard eyes softening and an impish grin playing on her lips .

"Me" said Squid grumpily, still subconsciously rubbing his stomach where she'd hit him.

"Oh - well, sorry about that - didn't mean to, I was half asleep, ya know?"

Avita was looking around at all of them, considering. Her eyes traveled over each boy in turn, taking in X-Ray's glasses, Zigzag's hairstyle, Magnet's teasing smile, the grime on Armpit's jumpsuit, and Squid's odd assortment of hats. Each of them certainly seemed to have their quirks, she thought, but they didn't look like a bad bunch.

Then, Squid spoke, jolting Avita out of her thoughts.

"Say, you want me to show you around?" he asked.

"Sure - let me just change out of this stupid jumpsuit first."

Then, she proceeded to undress, right in front of them. She didn't seem embarrassed at all. The boys were all staring, wide-eyed at her as she began unbuttoning her jumpsuit and pulled it off her shoulders so it hung around her waist. They realized why she hadn't minded changing with them all there - she was wearing other clothes underneath her jumpsuit. She had on plain black tank top and a pair of too-big cargo pants that hung loosely at her hips and looked as though they might have been stolen from and older brother.

"What?" she said, raising an eyebrow at them and, rolling her eyes at their still stunned faces, moved towards the tent flap. She pushed it aside and hopped down onto the dusty earth below, little dust clouds rising as her feet hit the ground.

Squid followed her out of the tent, leaving the other boys temporarily dumbstruck.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...Hope ya liked it, the second chapter might take me a while cause I'm not exactly sure what to write yet, but I'm working on it... REVIEW PLEEEEEZE!

By the way, thanx to Vega-chan1 for being my first ever reviewer! You rock!


	3. Chapter 2 Dinner

Disclaimer:I don't own holes... blah blah... don't sue me... I only own Avita  
thanx 2 all u guys who reviewed – i luv u sooo much – so anyway, here's chapter 2, hope u like it...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Two:

As Avita stepped out of the tent, she took a good look around for the first time since she'd gotten to the camp. When she first arrived, she was so eager to get out of the hot sun that she hadn't really bothered to examine her surroundings. She was surprised to see that there weren't any boys walking around, but figured it was because it was still extremely hot out, even though the sun was beginning to sink towards the mountains in the distance. She turned to Squid, who had just stepped out of the tent behind her and was standing as though waiting for her to speak.

"So, let's get this show on the road!" she said cheerfully, breaking the silence and waiting for him to get in front of her so she could follow him.

"Alright," he said, beginning to walk towards a small, very old, and very rundown wooden shed marked 'Library'.

"So... this here is where we keep our shovels when we're not usin' 'em," he said, gesturing towards the little shed.

"Why's it called the 'Library'?" Avita asked, puzzled.

"Beats me," he replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I guess they think it sounds better than 'tool shed' or somethin' else like that. They way I see it, a shed is a shed. It doesn't matter to me what you call it."

At this, Avita smiled, and pointed to a sign hanging above the doorway of a small, wooden building that resembled a little one-room cottage, though without any of the cozyness might posses.

"Wreck Room?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "Isn't it normally called a Rec. Room?"

Squid looked at her with a bewildered expression on his face. "Whadiya mean 'isn't it normally called a Wreck Room'? It is called the Wreck Room."

"No - Rec. Room, you know, like R-E-C Rec? As in Recreational?"

"O-o-oh," he said, comprehension dawning on his face, "It's probably called a 'Wreck' Room because that's what it is – all the stuff in there is either broken, ancient, or made of recycled junk. The only good thing in there is the pool table."

Just then, the sound of a trumpet blared from a large, yellow megaphone attached to the building just beyond the Wreck Room.

"Dinner time; we eat in the Mess Hall, just over there. Do you wanna finish looking around later? We'd better not be late for dinner, Mr. Sir'll probably wanna talk to all the guys about you're bein' here and tell 'em not to pick on you and stuff like that," Squid said, heading towards the Mess Hall and motioning for Avita to follow him.

"Hit on me is more like it" grumbled Avita under her breath, following Squid towards the Mess Hall. The prospect of meeting the rest of the camp did not excite her, thinking of D-tent's reaction to the discovery of a girl in their midst.

At the sound of the trumpet, boys had begun flooding out of the Wreck Room and tents, many stopping to stare, talking excitedly amongst themselves, as they caught sight of Avita. There were whistles and catcalls as Avita walked determinedly passed them, uncomfortably aware of their eyes following her.

As she approached the doorway to the Mess Hall, a tall, greasy- haired, very tough looking guy blocked her way. He had small dark eyes that were currently alight with malice, and he reeked of eggs.

"Hey, doll," he drawled, sneering at her.

"Move it," she said, grumpily. She was not at all in the mood to have to deal with guys like this.

"Why dontcha gimme a kiss, and I'll think about it," said the boy, grabbing her roughly by the shoulders and lowering his heavy-jawed face to hers. His face was about an inch from hers when she suddenly raised her left knee, catching him hard in the groin. He gasped and doubled over in pain. Avita leaned down so she could look in the face, which was, at the moment, screwed up in pain, and said in soft, dangerous voice,

"Don't ever do that again." She glared at him, straightening up. She turned to walk away, but had only gone a pace or two when she turned back to the boy and said, with the same icy expression,

"Oh, and don't ever call me Doll." (AN – has anyone seen Space Jam?) She turned and stalked away, leaving the boy, still bent over in pain, staring after her in disbelief.

Though she tried to act cool, inside Avita was seething. She hated when arrogant jerks like that thought they could walk all over her and treat her like trash, just because she was a girl and happened to be both pretty and small for her age.

All guys are jerks, she thought, glaring around at the crowd that had gathered around her and the guy who had tried to take advantage of her. No matter how cute they were or how nice they seemed, they were all arrogant, selfish, superficial jackasses. She had made a promise to herself never to fall in love with a guy again, not since He... well, she didn't like to think about Him anymore. He was a part of her past, she couldn't change that, but she did her best to forget about Him. But she would never forget, she thought, absent-mindedly tracing the scar on her left cheek with her index finger. She couldn't forget, or it might happen again, and she couldn't let it happen again... No, she would never forget what He put her through.

As she approached the line where Squid, X-Ray, and several of the other boys from D-tent were waiting for her, she pushed these unpleasant thoughts to the back of her mind, and put on a cheerful face. They were all wearing almost comically astonished looks, clearly shocked at what she had just done.

Magnet was the first one to snap out of it.

"Hey, chica, you alright?" he asked, tentatively.

"Peachy!" Avita replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You wanna watch out for that guy," said X-Ray, nodding at the guy who had tried to kiss Avita, who was now glaring over at them with loathing in his eyes.

"Yeah, he's trouble. He especially hates us D-tenters, cause Squid "accidentally" threw his shovel where he just happened to be sitting, and it just happened to hit him in the face and just happened to brake his nose," said Armpit, to heavy sniggers from the others. At this, Avita couldn't help grinning in spite of herself.

"Hey, move along there, the other girl scouts need their dinner, too," said a gruff voice from behind the still-chuckling group. They turned around, only to come face-to-face with Mr. Sir, the head counselor and second-in-command to the Warden.

Mr. Sir was a tall, stout man, with greying hair and serious side-burns. He was wearing a used-to-be white cowboy hat and brown leather cowboy boots, a gun in the holster in his leather belt, and a scowl.

"I hear you been making trouble around here, little missy," barked Mr. Sir, pointing an accusing finger in Avita's direction.

"There's a kid hobbling around over there like a shot moose. His buddies tell me you kneed him in his... well, in a sensitive place."

"I-" Avita began, but was cut off by Squid.

"Look, Mr. Sir, it wasn't her fault. Robert was asking for it." He put a hard stress on the boy's real name, causing many sniggers from the other D-tent guys.

"He tried to force himself on her, sir, she was only defending herself." He looked imploringly to the others for support, and they all nodded in agreement.

"He did, Mr Sir-"

"He tried to-"

"She was only-"

"QUIET!" Mr. Sir bellowed, and they all fell silent. "I will speak to Robert, but in the meantime, I don't want any more trouble," he said, looking meaningfully at Avita, who had alone remained silent, and was glaring at Squid. "You girl scouts better get your acts together – now getcher dinner and stop holding up the line. And you better look at me when I speak to you, girly," he added, glaring at Avita.

With that said, he strode away from them, towards the boy called Robert and his group of friends, who were still looking daggers over at Avita.

Then, Zigzag began excitedly recounting Avita's triumph over Robert. The other boys all joined in the discussion, saying things like,

"Didjya see his face?"

"That was classic."

"Guys will be talking about that for weeks-"

Avita was the only one not seeming to join in their enthusiasm. She had been surveying Squid with a remarkably cold expression ever since he had began telling Mr. Sir what had happened, but none of the boys seemed to have noticed. They all laughed and joked as they got their dinner trays: Refried beans, baked beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, banana jello, and a slice of bread each.

As they all moved towards the D-tent table, Avita realized there was already somebody sitting there, a small, curly-haired, dark-skinned somebody. He looked oddly familiar, as though he was someone she had known when she was very small, like an old friend, lost and forgotten.

"Who's that?" Avita asked, prodding Zigzag in the back to get his attention.

"Oh, him?" replied Zigzag, gesturing towards the little boy at the table. "That's Zero. He hasn't been here that long. Don't expect to get much talk outta him, he's barely said two words since he got here."

"Do you know anything about him?" Avita asked, remembering the feeling of familiarity she'd gotten when she'd first laid eyes on Zero.

"Nope, not about his personal life, anyways. Only thing we really know is he's the fastest digger in the camp. If you ask me, I think he actually likes diggin' holes. He's a weird little dude."

Avita smiled wryly at this comment. It seemed a bit strange for Zigzag to be calling anyone a "weird little dude", because Zigzag probably the weirdest 'dude' in the whole camp. Besides his odd hairstyle, he also seemed oddly jumpy, as though he were extremely paranoid about something.

All the boys had taken their seats while Avita was reflecting on this, and only when Magnet spoke, did she realize that she was still standing in the middle of the room with her tray of bean mushyiness.

"Hey, chica, you gonna sit or what? There's a space for you over here." He indicated the seat between Zigzag and himself and looked inquiringly at her.

Avita walked slowly over to the dilapidated wooden stool, dragging her feet. She really didn't feel like listening to the guys chatting away when she herself was feeling so irritable. She sat down, glowering at her 'food'. When she looked up, she saw Squid looking at her from across the table. Oh great. I get to sit across from this idiot. She was still angry with him.

Several times the other guys tried to engage her in conversation, but she wasn't very keen on talking just then. She quickly finished her bean mush, affectionately referred to as "Sploop" by the would-be campers, and headed outside.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok- I was gonna make it longer but I haven't updated in a while so I'll just end it here 4 now. (I'm in an evil mood, can u tell? Lol)

GO PATS! SUPER BOWL CHAMPS 2004! YAY! sorry if your a panthers fan but, hey, I live right near Boston, so GO PATS!

See that little purple box down there? The one that says "Go"?

l  
l  
l  
/ PRESS IT! REVIEW! PLEASE! (makes irresistibly cute puppy-dog eyes) please review!


	4. An Interesting Evening

Hey everybody, I just wanted to tell anyone who is reading my fic that I edited chapter 2 (Dinner) a little. I don't know how much difference it'll make, but I like it better. I also fixed some typos. BTW- Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. I think there was something else I was going to write, but I can't remember what it is. If I remember I'll keep you posted (I'm a ditz, what can I say) hehe TTFN

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3: An interesting evening...

Avita stared moodily down at her feet as she walked away from the Mess Hall, kicking at pebbles as she went. The happy chatter and laughing that still reached her ears annoyed her even more in her present irritated state. She thought angrily of Robert, Mr. Sir, and then of Squid. She wasn't exactly sure why she was so mad at him, only that when he had interrupted her when she was trying to explain to Mr. Sir about her little "incident" in the Mess Hall, it had reminded her forcefully of Him again, and she didn't want to think about Him. Did Squid think she wasn't perfectly capable of taking care of herself? She knew she had probably overreacted and felt kinda bad about it, but she couldn't help. Anything that reminded her of Him in any way... it still hurt so much, she doubted if the pain would ever fade. It had reminded her of the way He had tried to control her, until she couldn't take it any longer.

Avita had wanted to leave him, but at the same time, he was the only one she could ever remember wanting her, and he had once loved her, like no one else had. He was all that she had, and she couldn't let go, even though she knew how much he was hurting her. It was like being in a cage of her own thoughts and emotions, forcing her into a kind of downward spiral of despair, until she finally hit rock bottom. It was then that she had turned to stealing, drugs, alcohol, starving and cutting herself, anything that would take her mind off of the hell that was her life.

Then, finally, one night when she was prowling aimlessly around the dark alleyways of Manhattan, a cop stopped her and searched her coat. He found the knife she had taken to carrying, along with large amounts of crack and heroin. Since she had no parents or other legal guardian, she wasn't given much of a trial. There was no space at any of the girl's correctional camps, so she had been sent here, to this stupid camp, all because of Him.

All the time she had been thinking, Avita had been trudging along slowly, not paying attention to where she was going or anything around her. Suddenly, her left foot stepped on something squashy. She heard the briefest hiss and saw a flash of fangs before a searing, white-hot pain shot through her ankle. She screamed in pain and fell to her knees, clutching her leg. Through the haze of pain, she caught sight of the diamond-patterned tail of a rattle snake whipping around the corner of the "library".

Dimly, Avita was aware of footsteps and anxious voices, though they were becoming muffled and slurred. Now people were gathering around her crumpled form, their blurry faces swimming before her eyes. She felt a strange sensation in her injured ankle, and then a pair of strong arms encircled her, swallowing her up in their warm, safe grasp. It was a comforting feeling, a good feeling. She felt as though this was where she belonged. She smiled, and then everything went black.  
"No, Jose, please-"

"Where have you been, Vita? Out with Ben again? You were, weren't you? I knew it, I can't trust you anymore, can I? I-"

"No, I-"

"I'll teach you to cheat on me, you dirty whore,"

"No, please, stop, it hurts..."

Someone was screaming in fear, in pain. A girl was screaming. A pair of rough, calloused hands were shaking her, the screams diminished into terrified sobs...

"Avita! Avita, wake up! Can you hear me? Wake up!"

Avita opened her eyes to see the blurred outline of somebody standing over her, their hands on her shoulders, and several more people standing around them. She squirmed, trying to get away from the person holding her. Only then did she realize that the frantic sobbing was coming from her own mouth. She quickly shut it and sat up, still fighting to free herself from whoever had hold of her.

"Calm down, chica, we're not gonna hurt you."

Avita blinked several times to clear her vision, which she realized had been blurred by tears. She looked up, and her now bloodshot eyes met a pair of honey-brown ones that were full of concern. Squid was bending over her, still holding her by the shoulders. X-Ray, Zigzag, Armpit, Magnet, and Zero were standing around them. They were all looking anxious, and some downright scared.

Avita suddenly became aware of a sharp pain in her thigh and, looking down, saw that she was sitting on her cot, and one of the metal springs was poking up through the mattress. She groaned and rubbed her head. She was aching all over, except for her left ankle, which seemed to have gone numb.

Squid let go of her and she leaned forward to examine her injured leg. She let out a tiny gasp. Her leg was puffy and red, right down to the middle of her calf, where there was a strip of filthy yellow material tied tightly, cutting off a lot of the circulation to her ankle and foot. Her foot was paler than it usually was, but other than that, looked normal. Her ankle, however, was a different story. Just next to her bone were two small, round, close-set holes that were oozing droplets of blood. The area surrounding the bite was tinged with purple and green, and when she reached out to touch the spot gently with her forefinger, she yelped in pain and drew back quickly. Apparently, that part had not lost feeling.

Though the wound looked horrible, Avita knew it wasn't that bad. She remembered her uncle had once gotten a rattle snake bite, but she had been little and had no idea what to do. His whole leg had resembled a poisonous green ham before long, and he had died a few days later. Her bite looked as though someone had already begun tending to it.

"Well, they must not all be complete idiots," she mumbled, sullenly.

"What did you say?" asked X-Ray, eying Avita suspiciously.

"I said, you must not all be complete idiots, seeing as I'm not dead."

The boys all looked at one another, and then their eyes flicked onto Squid, who was suddenly looking a little uncomfortable.

"If it gets all infected or something, don't blame us," said Armpit.

"Yeah, Squid said he knew what he was doin'," said Magnet.

Avita looked up at Squid and, noticing how embarrassed he was looking, gave him the first truly genuine smile she had managed all day. He seemed to relax a little, and smile sheepishly back.

"You did this?" she asked.

Squid was still looking a bit embarrassed, and spoke to the floor,

"Yeah," he mumbled, apparently very interested in a piece of fluff poking out of a hole in the cot's mattress, "I, I grew up around here," he said, gesturing at the open tent flap, out towards the dark, dusty wasteland that was the camp. "We leaned how to deal with this kind of stuff." He was now blushing slightly, though she didn't know why he was so embarrassed.

Avita was curious about his past, but Squid didn't seem to want to elaborate, and she thought it best not to press it. 'He'll tell me if he wants me to know.' She pushed the thought to the back of her mind, and looked into Squid's eyes, smiling.

"Thanks," she said, softly, and with such obvious sincerity that he grinned too.

"No problem," he said, looking more relaxed.

Avita thought she was pretty much better, her leg didn't really hurt any more, so she began to get up. As she tried to stand up, however, her head whirled and she fell sideways into Magnet, who caught her and helped her back onto the cot.

"Not quite well yet, I guess," Avita said with a weak laugh. She was suddenly exhausted, so she leaned back on her pillow and drifted off to sleep.

Avita slept badly, awakening several times from nightmares drenched in icy sweat. Every time she fell back asleep, she had the same dream, a dream of a cage with iron bars, and she was trapped inside. Every time she tried to escape the cage would shrink, becoming smaller and smaller until it was squeezing the very life out of her, suffocating, her, choking her, and then she would awake, gasping for air and sobbing silently into her hands.

About the third time this happened, Avita sat bolt upright, shivering all over, shoulders shaking with muffled sobs. She hugged her knees tightly to her chest, trying to block out the encircling darkness of the night.

Quite suddenly, Avita felt something on her shoulder and jumped, nearly falling off the cot. She whipped around to see what it was, and found herself face-to-face with Zero.

Avita wiped her eyes hurriedly on her sleeve, and then looked up at Zero. He was watching her with a kind of powerful intensity that made her feel as though he could see right through her, right down into the depths of her soul. Neither of them said anything for a minute, and then Zero held out his canteen which appeared to be full of cold water.

"Drink it," he said, softly. "It'll help your ankle."

She took the canteen from him and gratefully put it to her parched lips.

"Thanks," she whispered, after taking a long swig of the water, its refreshing coolness soothing her throat.

"You were having nightmares," Zero said, quietly. It was a statement, not a question.

Avita nodded, looking at the floor. She placed the canteen on the floor beside the cot, avoiding looking into Zero's penetrating stare. Again, silence fell, and then,

"Who's Jose?" Zero asked suddenly.

"What?" Avita asked, taken aback. "How did you-?"

"You talk in your sleep."

"Oh." Avita was staring at the floor again, pretending to be very interested in a nail head protruding from the wooden floor. She really didn't want to discuss this right at the moment.

"Did he hurt you?" Zero asked quietly.

"Yeah, he did." She sat there, stunned. She had never, ever talked to anyone about Jose, she had never wanted to, and yet, here she was, spilling secrets to this little puffy-haired kid who she had never even met. 'But then, what was that feeling I had when I first saw him?' Avita was suddenly feeling confused and slightly dizzy, but something about the sad, almost pained expression in Zero's penetrating eyes told her she could trust him to keep her darkest secrets, and never tell a soul. It was as though he understood her, without her having to say a word. It was an expression of sadness, of deep-seated pain, of longing, 'But for what...?'

The two of them sat in silence for awhile, and then,

"Do you miss your family?" questioned Zero, his expression growing more pained as he said it, and his tone was full of sorrow.

Avita gave a soft, hollow laugh, "My family? Yeah, right. Zero, I don't know squat about family. To me, it's nothing but a six letter word."

Zero said nothing, but stared fixedly at the floor. He looked as though he was fighting back tears.

"You miss them, don't you?"

Zero looked up, but still didn't speak. He didn't need to. Avita could read the answer in his eyes.

Avita reached over and brushed away the solitary tear trickling down Zero's cheek, and then pulled him into a hug. 'Poor kid, he's too young to be away from his family like this...' He leaned against her and put his head on her shoulder. They sat there, huddled together for a long time. Finally, Zero's breathing had become soft and slow, and she knew he was asleep. She got up slowly, cradling him in her arms, and set him down gently on his cot. She looked into his young face, so innocent in sleep, and sighed. She felt sorry for him. Then, she walked back to her own cot, her feet dragging along in tiredness, and collapsed onto it. She fell straight to sleep, feeling a lot better than she had earlier.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I got so many reviews for chappy 3 which is really chappy 2 but anyways, YAY I have 20 now! (ok that's not much compared to some people, but not bad)  
Thanks to:  
X0xsnowPrincessx0x - thanx, yeah I think it'll be fun writing about a girl in a boy's boot camp, it could get very interesting...  
Kirjava Deamon - thanx for the warning, I didn't know that was a rule  
Picky- I like Zigzag too, he's so funny & crazy lol  
Geneveva - I'm trying to make longer chappys, who knew it would be so hard? Now I can really appreciate how hard is to write long books  
Skittles n' Sparky - Don't worry, Avita has her reasons for being a brat right now, all will be explained  
fairbird - finding stuff can be hard lol  
vega-chan1 - o, Avita and Zero go waaaay back, well, sorta...  
courtsy445 - Thanx, I'm flattered, that's probably the best review I've gotten yet, and your story is sooo good  
RiRiana - I wasn't really making fun of him (ok, just a little). I like Zigzag because he's weird.  
Anyone else reading, please review!


End file.
